Thursday, January 20, 2011

Good evening, loyal readers. Today I decided to perform a public service by comparing one of the best snack foods ever made: The Nutty Bar. Unfortunately, the reason I happen to be doing this taste test is because I'm finishing off a box of one brand and beginning a box of another, so there are only two brands in the running: Little Debbie (LD) and Great Value (GV).

The contest got off to a little bit of a rocky start, because I pulled the packages out of the boxes, then laid them down right next to each other on the counter while I got the essential glass of milk. I went back to get the snacks, and realized I didn't know which was which! The contest almost ended then and there. But upon closer inspection, I realized that they were slightly different in appearance. In fact, one of the bars looked a little less chocolaty, and was a little bit skinnier than the other.

Uh-oh! Not a good sign for whoever the culprit turned out to be!

I was out of GV, so I compared to LD's. Turns out, the cheap-o looking thin ones with less chocolate were the name brand!! Tsk, tsk, LD! Not a very good start for the snack I paid an extra quarter for!

Well, I had compared the aesthetics, and GV, definitely looks better, but which actually tastes better? There's only one way to find out, and I am just the girl to test it! I decide to start with the more appetizing looking snack, and bite into the GV brand.

Of course it tastes like heaven, it's a peanut butter/chocolate combo with wafers in between! But for our purposes, let's try to be somewhat critical. The flavor was good, and the wafers were nice and crunchy. There was a good chocolate to peanut butter ratio. Then it was gone.

Now, it was LD's turn! I took a bite into the skinny little un-chocolaty snack. The wafers were more crispy than crunchy. I have to admit that the flavor was slightly better than the GV. The peanut butter seemed creamier. And I actually liked the crispness better than GV's crunchiness.

Now here's the thing: Great Value brand costs $1. Little Debbie brand costs $1.25. Are LD's Nutty Bars good enough for me to go out of my way to buy them over GV's?

Eh, because I'm cheap, probably not.

If I'm at a store that only has the name brand, then I'll happily spend the extra to get a slightly better confection. But if I'm at Walmart, I'll probably just grab the GV at checkout and still be a happy, well chocolate and peanut buttered girl!

Monday, January 10, 2011

After hearing about "The Zombie Apocalypse" and watching enough zombie movies to be pretty much convinced that a Zombie Apocalypse is basically inevitable as scientists continue to play God, I have come to a decision.

I hope to be the first zombie.

Most people want to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. Many people want to kick the Zombie Apocalypse's butt. To many, being one of the last humans beats the alternative...becoming a zombie; or worse: becoming zombie food. In addition, there seems to be some kind of bragging rights involved in beating off zombies, and being one of the last human beings left on the planet.

I would submit to you, however, that being the first zombie is a far superior alternative.

First of all, becoming the first zombie means that you totally don't see it coming for you, so you have no dread of what might happen. One day you feel fine and the next, you are a mindless zombie, eating human flesh. This is admittedly not an appetizing idea, but certainly preferable to being terrified that you will become the aforementioned monster, or its meal, and THEN becoming such.

Second of all, how cool would it be to be the one that started it all?! I would go down in history!! "Patient Zero" has a really cool ring to it, and that could be me!

Third, and most important, I am much too lazy to have to spend so much of my day just trying to survive. I do not want to have to run from zombies, barricade myself against zombies, and become super-inventive in devising ways to obtain food without becoming the food myself. Please, just shoot me and get it over with. Or better yet, become the first zombie, and never have to worry about it!

Finally, I believe that surviving the Zombie Apocalypse is completely overrated. Once the zombies are vanquished, and you're left with only a handful of other people, then what? Your family is gone, there's no guarantee that you even LIKE the others that survived the Zombie Apocalypse with you, and, let's be honest, the smell would be overpowering.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

My children's school starts at 8:00 in the morning, but they have to catch the bus at 6:37 (you got that right...in the morning) every day. Between my house and the bus stop (about a block away) there are 3 or 4 places that collect mud every time it rains. It rained last night. This morning, as we were walking to the bus stop, Daniel slipped and fell in a BIG mud collection area. He was COVERED in mud! I looked at him, and I looked at Launa (who hadn't fallen and was clean) trying to decide if I dared to leave my little girl at the bus stop alone in the dark to wait for the bus while I ran home to get Daniel changed. I decided that I'd better not, so I told them we needed to hurry home to change. Fortunately, we ran into our next door neighbor on the way back to the house and I asked him if he'd hold the bus for us. (Note: We are a 1-car family, and my husband is at work with the car, so my kids HAVE to make it to the bus.)

As we were walking back to the house, poor Daniel was sore and his shoes were slippy from the mud they were covered in. I wanted to be sympathetic, but the bus was due in any moment. So I told him I was sorry that he was sore, but that we had to hurry. I told him to wipe his shoes in the grass as we walked, and told him that as soon as we got to the house he needed to start taking off his pants and shoes while I grabbed a fresh pair of pants for him.

As we got into the house, I started running upstairs and he started taking off his pants and shoes...on my area rug. I grabbed the first pair of pants I could find and hurried them down to Dan, who was waiting....with his muddy shoes and pants in a heap...on my area rug. While he put his pants on, I grabbed a paper towel to try to wipe some of the mud off the sides and tops of his shoes so they were a least wearable. When I got back from cleaning off his shoes, I realized that I'd handed him a pair on jeans with a hole in the knee (sigh) but they were what he had on, and they were what he would wear. I tossed him a hand towel I had lying around so he could wipe off his hands, he got his coat and backpack back on, and we were on our way back to the bus stop. I think the whole thing took about 3 minutes.

On the way to the stop, our neighbor spotted us and told us to hurry, the bus was waiting. So we ran to the bus (in the STREET this time, because somehow this is safer than the sidewalk). The driver almost headed down to the next stop (which is about 300 feet from my kids' stop, I am NOT exaggerating for effect. It's ridiculous.) but when he saw us, he waited. He told me that if he had gone down to the next stop, he would have waited for us there, which was fine as well, but I was glad I didn't have to run the extra 300 ft!

Not That You Would Want To...

But for those of you that may be new to my blog, if you need to shut off the music for a minute, say to watch a video, or listen to another song that's on my blog, just scroll down to the bottom of the page, and my playlist is hanging out there.

Daniel

My hot husband with a goatee.

Cool Photo Of Me

Of course you love me, and here's why:

Hello! My name is Mary, and I am the mastermind behind all this awesomeness! I am the mother of two middle - sized children, and the wife of one very handsome man. I like to crochet - it has gone from a sometime hobby to something of an obsession. Maybe I should be a little ashamed of my addiction, but I've decided to embrace it instead!